Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Now Bring Us Some Figgy Salad...

I hope everyone is having as much fun this summer as we are! Summertime here is hot, hot, hot, and filled with activities. We've been zipping off each day to one fun thing after another -- swimming, park days, play dates, and bumper boats! Last weekend I even hosted a sushi party(first two pics), where I demonstrated the fine art of rolling sushi (filled with vegan goodies like tofu, peppers, avocado, mango, and cucumber, of course!).

And here's a photo of our latest Power Picnic: first, a giant salad made with romaine, spinach, pear, fresh figs, and walnuts, with a little container of D'Anjou Pear Vinegar (shmoo was going to pack an extra pear for himself, but ended up eating it on the spot instead). For the shmoo there's a cashew butter and homemade rhubarb jam sandwich on cracked wheat, surrounding a pyramid of baby carrots. For me, a thermos filled with red lentils, beets, carrots, and my beloved kale.

Verdict: I'm learning that shmoo is usually too busy having fun to really stop and eat when we're on our picnics, but he did manage to finish all his sandwich and ate his carrots on the way home. I'm learning I can always keep my daily salads interesting and heighten shmoo-appeal by adding different fruits and nuts and flavored vinegars; pears and figs was a great combination. 4 stars.

32 comments:

I found your site recently and am slowly looking through it all. Thanks so much. Yeah, my kids always do a lot of eating in the car, before and after the activity. So I learned to never have anything but the healthiest snacks in the car (they are captive, no pantry to raid.) I am getting the laptop lunchboxes for my birthday (for my kids) and I'm totally excited. Also eyeballing "Mr. Bento", kind of a grown-up size bento box. (Amazon has it.) Hope you get your cookbook going soon.

I have to thank you profusely for introducing me to Eat to Live. I'm only on chapter 4 and I have learned *so* much already, and am already starting to change the way I eat. I've been vegetarian for a few years, but after growing up in the South on the American diet, I've always wanted to know more about nutrition... this book is helping me so, so much. Now I can steal your salad ideas, too. :)

Glad you guys are still having a good summer. I know this isn't very original, but one of my favorite summer treats are frozen bananas. I just peel them, freeze them, and it's almost like an icecream treat later on. Also good dipped in organic peanut butter or some sort of chocolate sauce or pudding. How long before shmoo is back in school and we get daily lunches again?

Neat sandwich idea! That salad LOOKS lovely, but I cannot seem to get myself past the "fruit and veg shall not mix" mentality. I do NOT like fruits in my lettuce, and I can't make myself. It's such a shame too, cause it's such a healthy option for getting your 5-10.

Hurray, another update. Like the previous poster, I too have a hard time eating fruits in my salad. However, I'm sure that it tasted just yummy, especially with fresh figs. I was so spoiled as a child, eating them off my grandmother's tree, I don't think them much unless they're fresh.

it's definitely key to keep salads new and interesting. i'm one of those people who generally isn't big on salads (even though i love veggies), and there's no way i would eat salad every day if it just had lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber. at my work, we get catered lunches whenever we have meetings or training courses, and recently we've been getting big, delicious personal salads. my favorite so far are spinach and strawberry with balsamic v, and baby green mix with mango and sugared pecans. these are combinations i never would have thought of myself, but they are great!

That looks so good--and beautiful!I've been checking your blog way to much, hoping for an update...it's turning into an obsession!Mary, fresh Black Mission figs are soooo good. You just eat the whole thing. They have such a nice texture, and subtle flavour.Tere

How nice it is to find another kid who eats like mine. I've shown my daughter Shmoo's lunches so she can see there are other kids out there eating real food. Now she's asking for the lunch box.

With my second daughter, who is tube fed a milk based formula, I have found it even more important to talk to my eldest about our choice abstain from animals (and the exception of her sister) and your colourful lunches really help.

Hi Jennifer I find your ideas so inspirationl. I only have one problem, I like healthy eating, but I don;t realy have the time, energy or inclination to COOK. with limited time I just find there are other things I want to do MORE, so I end up snacking or eating simple meals. I need to work on this.

We get figs here for about a day, that's about the only thing I miss living here and that's we can't get fresh figs. I grew up eating figs and they never last long enough for me to do anything with them other than eat them whole!

I love the fig ideas! I've been buying them for 2 bucks a small basket, completely ripe, and then just cutting them up with other fruit or on their own- they're so decadent and gorgeous- I love the salad mixture- thanks as always for your brilliance and inspiration.

>>I'm curious about thermos full. Is it cooked? blended together? or just chopped and dropped together? Ican't tell and I'd really like to copy you.

It started out with a recipe for "red stew" -- red lentils, red onions, beets, and carrots all cooked together. Then I impulsively added some leftover steamed kale I had in the fridge. Simple, but tasty!

oh my goodness, these look so delicious. every time i see one of your photos and read a recipe or two, i get inspired and feel this amazing reaffirmation that my attempt at living a vegetarian lifestyle is not so "dangerous" as my family sometimes feels. thanks!

mm, figs. i think they taste better solo than in Fig Newton bars... possibly because of the excess sugar thrown into the bars.